ENDURANCE NEWS FROM THE F.I.M. CONGRESS

The calendars of the Endurance and Sidecar World Championships will be published later, as negotiations with the promoters are still in progress.
- Endurance: the limit for the maximum age finishes at the end of the year in which the rider reaches the age of 55 (subject to a medical certificate as from the age of 50) – The starting grid will be drawn up including the number of teams qualified for the race on the basis of the average of the best times recorded for one lap by all the riders (reserve rider not included) of the team during one of the qualifying sessions – The background colours of the number plates will be as follows: black for Superbike, blue for Superproduction, red for Superstock and green for open class.

WSB CALENDAR

Superbike & Supersport World Championship – Championnat du Monde Superbike et Supersport
Dates Country/Pays Circuit Superbike Supersport
February/février 24 ** Qatar Doha/Losail X X
March/mars 4 Australia/Australie Phillip Island X X
April/avril 1 Tba/tba
April/avril 15 Spain/Espagne Valencia * X X
April/avril 29 Netherlands/Pays-Bas Assen * X X
May/mai 13 Italy/Italie Monza * X X
May/mai 27 Great-Britain/Grande-Bretagne Silverstone * X X
June/juin 17 San Marino/Saint-Marin tba * X X
July/juillet 8 Tba/tba
July/juillet 22 Czech Rep./Rép. Tchèque Brno * X X
August/août 5 Great-Britain/Grande-Bretagne Brands Hatch * X X
September/septembre 9 Germany/Allemagne Eurospeedway Lausitz *X X
September/septembre 30 Italy/Italie Vallelunga * X X
October/octobre 7 France /Magny-Cours * X X
October/octobre 21 Tba/Tba
* : with Superstock FIM Cup/avec Coupe FIM Superstock **: Saturday/samedi
Vallelunga: round subject to contract

WORLD SUPERBIKES - TROY STORY YAMAHA

Troy Corser threw his leg over one of this year's Yamaha Italia's R1 WSBK bikes for the first time today (25th October) and left Mugello at the end of the day with a smile on his face. Weather conditions were nigh on perfect at the undulating Tuscan circuit and Troy and his new team were able to start their new job together in the best possible way.
At the end, Troy got down to some really good lap times - all without even pushing hard. The day went smoothly and completely without any dramas and now Troy is looking forward to the official tests in Valencia in just over two week's time.

Photo courtesy of Yamaha Racing/Kel Edge

"I can't believe how well today went and I'm really happy with my first day on a Yamaha Superbike. I started off with one of Andrew Pitt's bikes and worked with the crew getting a comfortable position and the usual stuff. The engine feels flatter off the bottom and is a bit peaky, but the bike is very stable under braking and the handling is pretty good also. The spin and wheelie control is very adjustable and, of course, one of the biggest differences is the suspension - which is now Ohlins. At the end of the day, I tried a few laps on one of Haga's bikes, but it was way too hard for me! I'm happy today because it took me hardly any time getting comfortable and I was able to get down to some pretty good lap times without pushing hard at all! I had no dramas, no crashes, no running off the track or anything like that, and I am surprised how well it's all gone gone today. Now I'm really looking forward to riding it at the Valencia tests and seeing how it stacks up against the rest of the boys."

THE AMERICAN ENDURANCE SERIES - BUT ONLY FOR 4-STROKE TWINS

THE RACE...AND THE RETIRED STEPHANE MERTENS KEEPS ON WINNING...

 

Pos	No.	Class	Rider	Laps	Best Lap	In Lap	Best Spd	Bike	Team
1	46	SST	Parriott/ Mertens/ Kern/	228	01:58.2	112	101.168	BMW R1200	San Jose BMW
2	18	SST	Barnes/ May/ Ulrich	228	01:56.8	7	101.116	Suzuki SV1000S	M4 EMGO Suzuki
3	32	SST	Ivey/ Day/ Trombino	223	01:59.7	60	98.893	Suzuki SV1000S	Vallely Racing
4	83	SST	Haner/ Nowland/ Ciccoto	223	01:59.4	202	98.615	BMW R1200	BMW Cycles Daytona
5	7	SST	J Layman/ S Layman/ Green	221	02:01.0	88	97.989	Suzuki SV1000S	Team Zyvax
6	58	SST	Estok/ Ray/ Luke	220	01:56.9	8	97.438	Aprilia Tuono 1000R	JC Racing
7	33	SST	Lynn/ Himmelsbach/ Ribiero	217	01:59.1	194	96.049	Suzuki SV1000S	Vallely Racing
8	16	ST	Crozier/ Hoffman/ Breckenridge	216	02:07.6	152	95.83	Suzuki SV650	Team Hurt By Accident.com
9	17	ST	Keys/ Lapham/ Wilkey	216	02:06.4	3	95.75	Kawasaki EX650	Blue Ridge Performance
10	75	SST	B Shaw/ Myers/ R Shaw	214	02:05.6	74	94.894	Suzuki SV1000S	Shaw Racing
11	79	ST	Millson/ Daigle/ Glenn	213	02:06.5	208	94.454	Suzuki SV650	GoBigRacing
12	69	ST	Czaia/ Matheson/ Linder	213	02:07.5	21	94.391	Suzuki SV650	Team Hurt By Accident.com
13	37	SST	Schwemmer/ Ju Filice/ Ashmead	209	02:01.5	31	92.68	Suzuki SV1000S	Old Pros Racing
14	19	GST	McBride/ Barnes/ Trottier	207	02:06.1	9	91.747	Ducati Multistrada 1000DS	Ducati Toronto.com
15	94	ST	Glaefke/ Bravo/ Hoeppner	207	02:12.5	133	91.729	Kawasaki EX650	Alliance Motorsports Racing
16	55	SST	Shockley/ Messina/ Phillips	203	02:05.5	77	90.022	BMW R1200	Team Motorrad
17	63	ST	Stanford/ Bell/ Broadhaed	203	02:13.2	59	89.78	Suzuki SV650	Bell Racing Inc
18	9	ST	Ji Filice/ Stokes/ Cummings	201	02:07.0	154	95.489	Kawasaki Ninja 650R	Pair-A-Nines
19	98	SST	Narbone/Hudson/ Martire	200	02:04.1	111	88.427	MZ1000	Brookside Racing
20	96	SST	Madsen/ Dodson	188	02:08.4	85	83.375	Honda VTR1000F Super Hawk	Team Battlestar
21	70	GST	James/ Fox/ Avello	182	02:09.3	12	80.475	Buell XB12	James Gang Racing
22	52	SST	T Pepin/ D Pepin Jr/ Rouleau	179	02:03.6	76	85.154	Suzuki SV1000S	Wild Hare Racing
23	95	ST	Hall/ DeSouza/ McEnery	177	02:11.7	54	78.407	Suzuki SV650	9 Lives Motorsports
24	22	ST	Westra/ J Vermeulen/ Vermeulen	177	02:09.0	10	78.289	Suzuki SV650	Ham & Cheese
25	36	GST	Helmbach/ Wilson/ Schnorrbusch	176	02:10.7	54	77.971	Ducati Sport Classic	Team Ducati New York
26	87	ST	Kcraget/ Berkoff/ Smith-Moore	165	02:07.7	102	73.203	Suzuki SV650	Speed Werks Racing
27	59	SST	Noyes/ Ribalta	146	01:57.7	105	100.791	Ducati 749	Belson Brumos Motorrad
28	12	ST	Kent/ Heino/ Breen	140	02:12.1	13	62.078	Kawasaki EX650	BK Racing
29	78	ST	Orde/ Card/ Bagshaw	127	02:07.7	87	92.698	Suzuki SV650	GoBigRacing
30	13	ST	Dominguez/ West/ Burleson	65	02:09.5	41	80.992	Hyosung GT650	Hyosung Motors USA
31	35	GST	Bilansky/ SRozynski/ JRozynski	58	02:08.9	15	44.498	Buell XB12	Sound Waves/ Veatch Motorsports
32	47	ST	Intravartolo/ Farrell	57	02:11.7	35	57.338	Suzuki SV650	Voice Eclipse
33	91	GST	Hamblin/ Young/ Vermonden	28	02:13.0	1	32.018	Buell XB12	Last Minute Racing
DNF	42	GST	Faussett/ Barry/ Routhier	203	02:09.8	105	90.033	Ducati PS1000LE	Team Daffy

The San Jose BMW team made history at Daytona International Speedway Saturday, winning a dramatic Inaugural 8 Hours At Daytona. The race was the first event in the SunTrust MOTO-ST Series.

Brian Parriott of Calistoga, Calif., Belgian Stephane Mertens and Nate Kern of Cherry Hill, N.J. held on to take a 14.856-second victory on their No. 46 BMW R1200 over the No. 18 M4 EMGO Suzuki SV1000S of Michael Barnes of Boca Raton, Fla., Geoff May of Gainesville, Ga. and Chris Ulrich of Lake Elsinore, Calif. In addition to claiming the overall win the BMW team took the Buell Motorcycle Company SuperSport Twins (SST) class.

The winning team completed 228 laps of the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course.

"Everything went smoothly," Parriott said. "The settings were perfect, tire wear was phenomenal. The times of our three riders were all within a second of each other, and I think that won the race for us."

The No. 32 Vallely Racing Suzuki SV1000S ridden by Chuck Ivey, Josh Day of Orlando and Frank Trombino of Kleinburg, Ont. completed the podium overall and in the SST class, five laps behind the winners.

The San Jose BMW ran near the front from the start of the race and found itself in a commanding lead after the No. 83 BMW Cycles Daytona BMW R1200 of John Haner from Austin, Texas, Sydney, Australia's Warwick Nowland and Mike Ciccoto of Sebastien, Fla. ran out of fuel on track with just over three hours remaining in the race.

The M4 EMGO Suzuki entry fought its way back from outside the top 10 after suffering a gearshift problem on the team's second scheduled pit stop just over an hour into the race. But the team was back up into second place with an hour and a half remaining and put on a furious charge to catch the leading BMW.

The Suzuki, with May aboard, made its final pit stop for a splash of fuel with 22 minutes to go and trailing by just under 30 seconds. May then lapped over two seconds quicker than the leading BMW as the laps wound down, but was unable to erase the deficit.

"We knew the Suzuki had to refuel one more time, so we weren't too worried," said Mertens of the closing laps. "The crew was really fantastic. They made no mistakes."

The No. 83 BMW Cycles Daytona entry recovered to finish fourth overall and in SST and fifth place went to the No. 7 Team Zyvax Suzuki SV1000S ridden by JB Layman and Scott Layman of Ellijay, Ga. and Steve Green of Knoxville, Tenn.

Pirelli has been named as the sole supplier of SunTrust MOTO-ST tires for the inaugural 8 Hours At Daytona as well as the first full season of competition in 2007. All competitors will use Sunoco GT unleaded fuel. Horsepower limits are enforced by a Dynojet chassis dynamometer.

The MOTO-ST Series will hold the 8 Hours of Daytona on Saturday, Oct. 21 beginning at 1 p.m. with $100,000 in purse and lap money. MOTO-ST will kick off their 2007 inaugural season in March at Daytona International Speedway during Daytona 200 Week By Honda.

LIVE TIMING AT THE MOTO-ST SITE! - www.moto-st.com

WEC riders are there as well...Warwick Nowland races a BMW for Team BMW Cycles Daytona, Stephane Mertens for Team San Jose BMW, Daniel Ribalta (2006 Le Mans winner) and Kenny Noyes (Spanish Endurance Championship) on a Ducati 746, Hans Westra for Team Ham And Cheese on a Suzuki SV650 (along with Jeff Vermeulen...and Raoul Vermeulen...but no Chris Vermeulen...), ex- Herman Verboven team rider Mike Barnes (I've always been impressed with him since the days he tooled a huge old oil-cooled 1250cc (modified from the 1100) GSXR Suzuki around the Macau track - remember Jimmy Felice, the giant-killer of 250cc GP's?...yup, he's in as well (Team Pair A Nines).

According to the official entry list, Team M4 EMGO Suzuki are racing two SV1000's - with the same riders - hmm, that can't be right...

THE BEST BIKES ON THE PLANET AVAILABLE  - NOW, PHASE ONE YAMAHAS ALSO UP FOR A PIFFLING AMOUNT...

As many people are aware, Endurance machines are built to last (not like GP or Superbike machines that need tender loving care after every couple of hours) - and the end of a season is the only chance for other up-and-coming race teams or members of the public to get their hands on some extremely serious machinery for, frankly, a trifling amount of money. The craftsmanship that has gone into making these bike some of the most reliable machines on the planet doesn't come cheap to the teams - upwards of 800 hours have gone into these bikes in preparation for the season...and I'm not counting the care lavished on them between races.

An Endurance machine gives a road-rider the best possible machine for the road - and new teams the best possible start to the season. A new team would not know the lessons learned over many years of Endurance competition by such teams as Yamaha Austria or 3-times World Champions Phase One.

...and Phase One are selling two of their four World Endurance Yamaha R1's.

Just check THIS out...

2 x 2005/6 Yamaha YZF-R1 1000s( in Superbike or Endurance forms)

Besides, how much is a Yamaha R1 out-of-the-box?...about £8000?...hmm, what about the cost of a set of Ohlins Superbike front forks?...about £5000?...you can see where this is going.

Pictures soon...and you can see the bikes at the NEC Show in Birmingham (that's Birmingham in England for our colonial friends!)

DIABLO 666 BIKES ALSO UP FOR SALE

 Diablo 666 World Endurance Superbikes - 2 x Kawasaki ZX10R's

* Superbike engine
* Full akrapovic titanium exhaust system
* Ohlins front and rear suspension
* Ohlins steering damper
* Quick action throttle
* Large airbox and trumpets
* Ermax double bubble screen
* Lengthened superbike swing arm
* Captive rear sprocket
* QD front and rear fittings for very fast change of wheels / brake pads
* Fully braided brakes
* Beringer radial QD endurance brakes (capable of over 18 hours non stop use)
* Brembo master cylinder and lever
* MIL quick shift
* Kit generator etc
* Billet and carbon fibre engine and gearbox covers
* Superbike alloy large size radiators
* 24 litre GP style endurance quick fill tank (if required)
* Dymag wheels 16.5“
* HID lights and LED spotting light (if required)

£7,500 each

Spares available as required separately - as are two further spare engines - Contact the team HERE

FAGERSJO-EL.SE NEWS

The team with the name that causes so many problems for commentators has now changed their name to something more user-friendly! Goodbye Fagersjo-El.se...welcome TEAM SUZUKI SWEDEN.
Everything else, team line-up, bike, tyres, all stay the same.

...not sure about the colour scheme, though...

THE 40th MACAU GRAND PRIX ENTRY LIST NOW AVAILABLE...

Who's gonna be there?...hmm...Kevin Schwantz, "Rocket" Ron Haslam, Didier De Radigues, Mick Grant...and Michael Rutter will be trying to beat "Rocket" Ron's record of 6 victories (interrupted in 1984 when he couldn't go - Mick Grant won)...more info HERE.

RUMOURS...

Jason Pridmore back for a round or two - maybe more?

Former Shell Endurance Academy rider Leroy Verboven back in 2007 with his own team...managed by his father Herman Verboven?

Yamaha France back?

Spanish Folch Endurance team in for the full Championship?

Christian Bourgeois and Kawasaki France coming back into the World Endurance Championship - on Michelins.

Phase One back next year, Warwick Nowland still on-board...

Castrol Suzuki...Julien Da Costa to replace Keiichi Kitagawa? - but what now happens to the factory parts from Japan?

World Endurance at Qatar...?

YAMAHA AUSTRIA - NEW SEASON, NEW BIKES, NEW FOCUS

After this November's Macau Grand Prix, the Yamaha Austria team will take delivery of their new 2007 4-valve Yamahas, rumoured to be the weapon of choice for all Superbike teams. As you can see further down the page, the world's fastest Endurance Yamahas of this year are up for sale...equipped with Japanese Superbike engines...for a pittance.

BUY THE FASTEST WORLD ENDURANCE YAMAHA!

Yamaha Austria are selling their 2006 World Endurance Championship Yamaha R1's (Yamaha Austria came 2nd in the World this year). These bikes were the first Yamahas across the line at Suzuka and consistently the fastest Yamahas in World Endurance this year.
They're beautiful...and unique.

CONTACT "MANDY" KAINZ HERE

FROM TEAM MANAGER "MANDY" KAINZ:
"The bikes are more or less semi – factory Yamaha’s with factory engine (titanium conrods, complete Kit prepared in Japan for the Suzuka race), factory Nissin brakes with Öhlins FG 671 Front forks , Kit swing-arm and front and rear quick-change systems, 24 litre aluminium fuel tank , kit ignition with special mapping and speed limiter. There are more than 800 working hours in these bikes, making them able to win all championship races...including Suzuka."

Price is €50 000, with all spare parts and spare engine.

Yamaha Austria and that 50cc moped endurance race...firstly, bike preparation...see the video HERE...then the race start...see the video HERE

Yamaha Austria. Even the parties are a lesson in Endurance.

I bet they're Klingons, really...

DAVID CHECA AT MAGNY COURS

5th!...outstanding! Yamaha GMT94's David Checa finished fifth at his team's home race, his best result since taking fourth place at Misano in June. A report from team manager Christophe Guyot as soon as I can!

DAVID CHECA AT IMOLA